12 Good, Fast, and Cheap Recipes

Caribbean Dream Fish Tacos
A lot of people instantly think cheap when it comes to tacos, but when fish gets involved they can get pricey to make. This recipe portions the fish out in a way that wont break your budget, and as it always is with tacos, theyre pretty fast to make.

Credit: Nisa Burns

Olive 'n' Fig Chicken
This dish will come hot out of the kitchen looking like a first-class meal, but little do your guests know that it only cost you a couple of bucks and no time at all to make.

Credit: Taste of Home

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup
Sometimes we just crave comfort, but dont have the time to invest in a full-blown meal that comfort food often requires. This broccoli soup is an inexpensive and fast alternative.

Credit: Build A Menu

Feta-Spiked Turkey Burgers

When youre craving a burger but dont want to spend the money on the beef, this turkey burger recipe will save you some pennies, and the feta filling makes them enjoyable to eat as well.

Credit: Nisa Burns

Greek Salad with Lemon
Fast and cheap to make, this recipe ensures that its good by using a few creative ingredients to infuse the salad with dominant flavors thatll leave taste buds singing.

Credit: Nisa Burns

Quick Chicken Cacciatore
Say cacciatore to someone and theyll immediately think of a flashy Italian restaurant with white linen tablecloths, but this recipe more than proves that you dont need the dough to put on that kind of show.

Credit: Taste of Home

Hash Brown Strata Recipe
Breakfast for a crowd can often be a production and can be costly if youre not careful, but this strata recipe keeps you in check by making it easy and financially reasonable to serve up a substantial early-morning meal.

Credit: Build A Menu

Individual Italian-Style Meatloaves
Meatloaf often does come across as a typical meat-and-potato kind of meal, but can get expensive because of the cost of beef. Going lean and serving it in portions like with these individual meatloaves makes it inexpensive like its supposed to be and did we mention that these are delicious and pretty fast to make?

Credit: Dawn Viola

Mediterranean Pasta
Beyond the cheap ingredients, this recipe saves money because it tastes even better the next day, cold, giving you not one meal but multiple.

Credit: Nisa Burns

Lemon Pepper Orzo with Asparagus and Yellow Squash
and nutritious, this orzo pasta makes a perfect center dish for your summer barbecue at little time and cost to you.

Credit: Dawn Viola

Roma Tomatoes with Feta and Basil
Think of this recipe as a magic show; delicious, satisfying, aesthetically pleasing, and it takes you no time or money to make at all.

Credit: Nisa Burns

Candy Bar Croissants
Some people think that desserts have to be this big production, with lots of money and time invested, but these candy bar croissants can be whipped up in a flash and will spare you the expensive details.

Credit: Taste of Home

Up Next

See Gallery

Discover More Like This

HIDE CAPTION

SHOW CAPTION

of

SEE ALL

BACK TO SLIDE

A recent Letter From the Editor in a popular lifestyle magazine discussed how we all love things to be good, fast, and cheap, but that doesn't always happen at once. It explained how things can be good and fast, but they're probably not cheap, or if they're fast and cheap, they're probably not good. As human beings, we're constantly on the search for things that cost us little money and take very little time, but give us the same quality of return, and the letter seemed to have determined that we were doomed in this regard. Reading it makes one wonder: Can anything be good, fast, and cheap?

Recipes, when developed carefully, can oftentimes be good, fast, and cheap. Cooking doesn't have to be some expensive, drawn-out process anymore to get exquisite and exciting results. Shopping smart, thinking simple, and using a touch of creativity can give you a beautiful dish that tastes delicious, was easy to make, and cost you little to nothing. There's not enough room in our recipe box for the amount of these kinds of recipes that exist, but here are 12 that are creative, exciting, and unique — not to mention that they're good, fast, and cheap.